Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (I use chunky)
1/4 cup shortening, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Mix all ingredients. Shape into 1 1/4" balls and place 3" apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Flatten them with a fork in a crisscross pattern and bake until browned, 9-11 minutes. Cool for a minute on the sheet then transfer to a rack.

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Ok, I know some of you are looking at this recipe and thinking "Wtf? Why so simplistic?" Well it's so simple because it's from a kids cookbook, Alpha Bakery. It's a little book that has a recipe for each letter of the alphabet and it's one that my girlfriend has many fond memories of. Specifically the banana bread. The main changes I made to the recipe are adding the chocolate chips and using chunky peanut butter. But I also don't just dump everything into a bowl, mix it up and call it done. I... I just can't. It's not right, dammit! Sure, it's fine for little kids, but I'm a big kid now, so I cream my sugar and fats, whisk together my dry ingredients (sometimes...) and I eat chunks of dough raw. Well, I guess little kids would do that too, but... I don't know where I was going with this. How about I just show you what I did.

So first, the fats. I like the mix of shortening and butter in these, it gives them a little more body than normal peanut butter cookies but they still have that crispiness that is so good. Plus they need to be a bit more sturdy than average peanut butter cookies for what I am ultimately doing with them. But I won't tell you about that today. Because I'm mean. Heh. I added the sugars and creamed them a bit. Then the peanut butter. I always use chunky peanut butter in these cookies, I just love the extra texture and peanutyness. It does make it less pretty since forking it doesn't work as well with all the chunks, but frankly that's more than made up for by having more peanuts. Once I've worked in the peanut butter it's time for the egg. I started mixing before I remembered to take a picture, but you get the idea. Then the dry ingredients. I don't always whisk them together beforehand, although I know I should, but if I do just dump them in I give them a quick stir before I mix them into the other stuff. That counts for something, right? Right. Ok. Once that's all almost combined, I toss in the chips, then finish off the mixing. Then I formed up some big balls of dough. I needed the cookies to be big for what I had planned. The thing that I'll hint at again, but not clarify. Muhahaha! Heh, 'scuse me. Now, forking. Once each way, to make that crosshatch thingie that is synonymous with peanut butter cookies. Then baking, at 375, till brown and delightsome. And there you have it, chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. Good enough to eat on their own or to use to make... something even better.